Shooting indoor with low light

timnancyk

I am using the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens for real estate photos to get the most content with a wide angle lens. Currently I am shooting indoor shots with blown-out windows using bracketing with the settings below and blending them in Lightroom to achieve the best indoor shot while taming the windows. I am new to learning all the settings and I'm trying to find the sweet-spot for taking indoor shots that will produce the sharpest shot that won't blow-out the windows, keeping my ISO low, and having the least amount of grain yet producing bright enough images. The settings below work for me now, but I find my images a little dark for indoor shots with a little more grain than I would like. Any ideas on how I could maximize my images with the best settings?

Here are my current settings:

Manual Mode, 1/10, f/8, ISO 100, bracketing exposure, image effect - faithful 5200k Daylight, AWB, one shot, 2s, center weight, RAW

bruto

You may be limited in your ability to do this by the manner in which some cameras handle lightening, and I suspect you may be getting as good a result as possible here. You might try exposing for the windows, and then pulling up the shadows in post processing. It's likely to be grainy, and the compromise between noise reduction and softening will be delicate.

I suspect the only other alternative would be to find a camera that can do a good HDR image, or to seek a newer camera that is "iso invariant". In that latter case, some cameras these days are said to be ISO invariant when there is no discernible difference between raising ISO and correcting underexposure in post processing. In such a case, you can obtain extended dynamic range by exposing for the highlights, and pulling up shadows in post without so much noise penalty.

With your current setup, unless you can change the dynamic range of the scene itself, about the only thing I can think of might be to widen the bracketing gap if you can. The least grain will be had with the highest exposure, so the lighter you can get the shadows in the shot at the + end, the better.

Otherwise, you might be able to tame the windows either by taking your shots at a different time of day, or by using a widely diffused flash or other bright lights to illuminate the interior more.